1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel alkaline proteinase K-16, a microorganism producing the alkaline proteinase, and a process for producing the alkaline proteinase. In particular, the present invention relates to a novel alkaline proteinase K-16 possessing excellent stability against surface active agents, as well as a microorganism and process for producing novel alkaline proteinase.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, proteinases have been incorporated into detergents, and a number of alkaline proteinases are currently used as an enzyme for detergent. Typical examples of such alkaline proteinases are alkalase, savinase, espelase (a product of Novo Industries). A problem with many of these alkaline proteinases has been their inadequate stability in surfactant solutions.
There have been publications reporting alkaline proteinases which are stable against surface active agents, for example, Ya enzyme (Japanese Patent Laid-Open (kokai) No. 280278/1986). These enzymes, however, have their active region in a high temperature side, and therefore are not suitable for use as a detergent to be used around a room temperature, for example, as a detergent for washing clothes.
A proteinase, API-21 (Japanese Patent Publication (kokoku) No. 55118/1985) which is more active in a lower temperature range than conventional proteinases has been developed. Its stability in surfactant solutions, however, is still not satisfactory.
Development of an alkaline proteinase which is highly stable in surfactant solutions and which will function well in detergents has therefore been desired.
In view of this situation, the present inventors have carried out an extensive survey of soils in Japan in order to obtain microorganisms capable of producing alkaline proteinase, and, as a result, found that a microorganism belonging to genus Bacillus discovered from the soils in Haga-gun, Tochigi-ken, Japan, is capable of producing a novel alkaline proteinase which is stable in a detergent composition.